Hatfield Farm owner’s retrial is scheduled for August 2025

A Hammonds Plains businessman will have a retrial in Halifax provincial court in the summer of 2025 on a charge of communicating with a female employee for the purpose of obtaining sexual services for consideration.

The young woman alleges Brian David Hatfield, owner of Hatfield Farm, offered her thousands of dollars to have sex with him in February 2020.

Hatfield, 56, stood trial last year on two summary charges involving the complainant – the other was criminal harassment – and was acquitted on both counts.

Judge Alan Tufts, in his trial decision last June, concluded the complainant was not credible and reliable regarding the specific words Hatfield had spoken to her. The judge noted that the woman prefaced her account by saying “I believe he said to me, I am not sure.”

The Crown appealed the acquittal on the charge of communicating for the purpose, claiming Tufts misapprehended the complainant’s evidence and erred in his credibility assessment.

A Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge heard the appeal in February and give his decision last month, quashing the acquittal and ordering a new trial.

“On no reasonable reading of (the complainant’s) words could one conclude that she was not sure about the words (Hatfield) had said to her,” Justice Peter Rosinski wrote in his appeal decision.

“I am satisfied that the trial judge misapprehended the substance of the evidence of (the complainant) and failed to give proper effect to the evidence, which played an essential part in the reasoning process, resulting in the acquittal.”

Defence lawyer Ron Pizzo appeared in provincial court for Hatfield late last month to set dates for the retrial. Judge Kelly Serbu scheduled the hearing for Aug. 13 and 14, 2025.

The complainant, whose identity is protected, testified at trial that Hatfield was a passenger in a shuttle van she was driving on the night of Feb. 15, 2020, following a Valentine’s Day event at the farm.

She said Hatfield was intoxicated and had an alcoholic drink with him as they drove around the property, making a couple of stops. She claimed that during the second stop, Hatfield told her he wanted to have sex with her.

The woman told the court Hatfield made comments that amounted to asking her to perform sexual acts with him then and in the future in exchange for money, assets and references that might advance her career prospects. She said Hatfield knew she was in a precarious financial situation.

She said after they drove to the lodge, Hatfield continued to make offers as he helped her assemble a mop bucket, saying he would give her “$1,000, $10,000, a car, an apartment.”

“He just said, ‘you know what we talked about earlier, that conversation doesn’t have to end here. I meant it,’ and then he would make any offers. So, in my mind, I was assuming that all these offers were for sex,” she said.

Hatfield took the stand and denied telling the woman he wanted to have sex with her or offering her financial incentives in exchange for sex.

Tufts said the evidence left him with reasonable doubt about both charges.